Contract manufacturing means a supplier builds your product on their floor, with their people and their equipment, to your documentation. You are buying finished parts or finished assemblies, not floor space or headcount. In Tijuana it is the fastest of the Mexico manufacturing models to start, because nothing has to be incorporated, registered or hired before work begins.
What a supplier needs before quoting
A quote written without these is a guess, and a guess is what has to be retracted later. The list is short and most of it you already have.
- Drawings or a 3D file — STEP preferred, or at minimum dimensions and photographs
- Materials and grades, exactly as specified
- Annual volume and the order pattern behind it — steady, seasonal, or a single launch
- Tolerances, and specifically which ones are critical
- Cosmetic requirements: visible surfaces, texture, colour match
- Secondary operations — assembly, testing, printing, packout
- Certifications the program requires
- What you pay today, landed, and what is wrong with it
Where the border changes the arithmetic
Tijuana sits minutes from the San Diego crossing. Finished goods move overland and arrive in hours or days rather than the six to ten weeks an ocean container takes. That collapses two costs that rarely appear on a quote: the safety stock long transit forces you to hold, and the working capital tied up in goods that are neither at the supplier nor at your dock.
It also changes how problems get fixed. A quality issue on a container in transit is a six-week problem. A quality issue forty minutes from your office is an afternoon.
The order a program goes in
Programs that start well are boring and sequential. The pilot run is the step buyers most often want to skip, and skipping it is what turns a first production order into a first production problem.
- NDA, so specifications can be exchanged properly
- Manufacturability review against the drawings
- Quote, against a defined scope rather than a description
- Prototypes or first articles, with a dimensional report
- Pilot run at low volume
- Release to production, with the reorder cadence agreed
What we run in Tijuana
USMEX operates an IMMEX-permitted plant in Tijuana combining injection molding, extrusion, assembly, a machine shop and warehousing on one site. Ten injection presses at 250 tonne, two extrusion lines, sub-assembly and functional testing, and packaging produced in the same building.
That breadth matters mainly for one reason: a program that needs a molded part, an assembly step and retail packaging can be run by one supplier under one point of accountability, instead of three vendors in two countries who each blame the others when something arrives wrong.
Quick answers
What is the difference between contract manufacturing and a shelter?
In contract manufacturing you buy finished parts and the supplier owns the process. In a shelter you run your own process inside a host's legal entity, with the host providing the permit, payroll and facility. Contract manufacturing starts faster; shelter gives you more control.
What is the minimum volume for contract manufacturing?
It depends on the process. Injection molding rarely pencils below a few thousand parts a year because tooling has to amortise; assembly and packaging programs can start smaller. Ask against your actual part rather than a general rule.
What do I need to send to get a quote?
Drawings or a 3D file, materials, annual volume, tolerances, and any certifications required. An NDA first is normal and expected.
How close is Tijuana to the U.S.?
Minutes from the San Diego crossing. Finished goods move overland, which is why lead times are measured in days rather than the weeks an ocean container requires.
